CONDITIONAL MESSAGE FORWARDING FUNCTIONS

• US 20120077467A1
• Filed: 09/24/2010
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fan, James, Barrett, Thomas, Lam, Jennifer K
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,155 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices that can conditionally and/or automatically control message forwarding by communication devices are presented. A network message management component and/or handset message management component can monitor messages (e.g., short message service (SMS) messages) communicated between user equipment (UE) in a communication network, identify and/or intercept a message for which one or more forwarding conditions have been specified by the message originator, target, or forward target, and conditionally and/or automatically route the message to the target and/or forward target in accordance with predefined message routing rules based at least in part on the conditions specified by the originator, target, or forward target. The predefined message routing rules can be implemented by the network and/or the UEs, and can relate to the UE identifiers, time, priority, cost, operation state, size, desired automatic response messages, or other desired factors, associated with the message.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a communication network that is configured to facilitate communication of at least one message from an originating communication device to at least a target communication device associated with the communication network; and

at least one message management component that is configured to route the at least one message to the target communication device and determine whether to forward a copy of the at least one message to a forward target communication device, based at least in part on one or more predefined message routing rules.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one message management component comprises at least one of a network message management component associated with the communication network or at least one handset message management component associated with at least one of the originating communication device, the target communication device, or the forward target communication device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to analyze a user profile associated with the target communication device to facilitate determination of whether forwarding of the at least one message is requested in relation to the target communication device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to intercept the at least one message when it is determined that forwarding of the at least one message is requested in relation to the target communication device.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to analyze a message-forwarding-allowance indicator associated with the at least one message to facilitate determination of whether forwarding of the at least one message is prohibited by the originating communication device.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to analyze at least one of a forwarding indicator associated with the copy of the at least one message, a user profile associated with the forward target communication device, or information received via the forward target communication device, to facilitate determination of whether forwarding of the at least one message is prohibited by the forward target communication device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to analyze information relating to at least one of the at least one message or the copy of the at least one message to facilitate determination of whether an automatic response message is to be sent to at least one of the originating communication device or the target communication device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to determine that the automatic response message is to be sent to the at least one of the originating communication device or the target communication device when the information relating to at least one of the at least one message or the copy of the at least one message includes an automatic-response-allowance indicator that indicates that the automatic response message is not prohibited.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to determine that the automatic response message is not to be sent to the at least one of the originating communication device or the target communication device when the information relating to at least one of the at least one message or the copy of the at least one message includes an automatic-response-allowance indicator that indicates that the automatic response message is prohibited.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the copy of the at least one message is communicated to at least one of a target message box associated with the target communication device or a forward target message box associated with the forward target communication device when a message box option is selected in relation to at least one of the target communication device or the forward target communication device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more predefined message routing rules relate to at least one of whether forwarding of the at least one message is prohibited by or in relation to the originating communication device, whether forwarding of the at least one message is requested by or in relation to the target communication device, whether forwarding of the at least one message is prohibited by or in relation to the forward target communication device, identifier associated with the originating communication device, identifier associated with the target communication device, identifier associated with the forward target communication device, current operating state of the target communication device, current operating state of the forward target communication device, priority level of the at least one message, time of transmission of the at least one message, cost of forwarding the at least one message, whether the at least one message includes an attachment, or size of the at least one message.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one message is at least one of a short message service (SMS) message, an enhanced message service (EMS) message, a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message, an instant message communicated via a communication device, or a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) messages.

13. A method, comprising:

intercepting a message sent from an originating mobile device to a target mobile device; and

determining whether to forward a copy of the message from the target mobile device to the forward target mobile device based at least in part on one or more predefined message routing rules.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying a message-forwarding-allowance indicator in the message or information associated with the forward target mobile device that at least one of does not indicate that forwarding the message to the forward target mobile device is prohibited or indicates that forwarding the message to the forward target mobile device is prohibited;

at least one of;

determining that the message is to be forwarded to the forward target mobile device when the message-forwarding-allowance indicator is set to a defined message-forwarding-allowed value and information associated with the forward target mobile device does not indicate that forwarding the message to the forward target mobile device is prohibited, or

determining that the message is not to be forwarded to the forward target mobile device when the message-forwarding-allowance indicator is set to a defined message-forwarding-prohibited value or information associated with the forward target mobile device indicates that forwarding the message to the forward target mobile device is prohibited.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

information relating to the one or more message routing rules or one or more messaging options can be received;

storing at least a portion of the information, in at least one of a first user profile associated with the originating mobile device, a second user profile associated with the target mobile device, or a third user profile associated with the forward target mobile device; and

routing the message or the copy of the message based at least in part on information stored in at least one of the first user profile, the second user profile, or the third user profile.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying that a message is received by at least one of the target mobile device or the forward target mobile device;

determining whether the at least one of the target mobile device or the forward target mobile device requests to send an automatic response message to at least one of the originating mobile device or the target mobile device; and

at least one of;

automatically sending the automatic response message to the at least one of the originating mobile device or the target mobile device when an automatic-response-allowance indicator is set to a value that indicates sending of the automatic response message is not prohibited, or

not sending the automatic response message to the at least one of the originating mobile device or the target mobile device when an automatic-response-allowance indicator is set to a value that indicates sending of the automatic response message is prohibited.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a selection indicating whether the copy of the message is to be delivered to a message box associated with at least one of the target mobile device or the forward target mobile device; and

at least one of;

delivering the copy of the message to the message box associated with the at least one of the target mobile device or the forward target mobile device when the selection indicates the copy of the message is to be delivered to the message box associated with at least one of the target mobile device or the forward target mobile device, or

not delivering the copy of the message to the message box associated with the at least one of the target mobile device or the forward target mobile device when the selection indicates the copy of the message is not to be delivered to the message box associated with the at least one of the target mobile device or the forward target mobile device.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more predefined message routing rules relate to at least one of whether forwarding of the is prohibited by or in relation to the originating mobile device, whether forwarding of the message is requested by or in relation to the target mobile device, whether forwarding of the message is prohibited by or in relation to the forward target mobile device, identifier associated with the originating mobile device, identifier associated with the target mobile device, identifier associated with the forward target mobile device, current operating state of the target mobile device, current operating state of the forward target mobile device, priority level of the message, time of transmission of the message, cost of forwarding the message, whether the message includes an attachment, or size of the message.

19. A system, comprising:

a mobile communication device that is configured to communicate with at least one other mobile communication device in a communication network; and

at least one message management component that is configured to route a message to a target mobile communication device and determine whether to forward a copy of the message to a forward target mobile communication device, in accordance with one or more predefined message routing rules.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein at least one of:

the mobile communication device is the target mobile communication device and is further configured to comprise the at least one message management component, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to route the copy of the message to the forward target mobile communication device when the one or more message routing rules specify that the copy of the message is to be forwarded to the forward target mobile communication device, or not route the copy of the message to the forward target mobile communication device when the one or more message routing rules specify that the copy of the message is not to be forwarded to the forward target mobile communication device;

the mobile communication device is the originating mobile communication device and is further configured to send the message to the target mobile communication device and comprise the at least one message management component, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to associate a message-forwarding-allowance indicator that has a specified allowed value when forward of the copy of the message is not prohibited or associate a message-forwarding-allowance indicator that has a specified prohibited value when forward of the copy of the message is prohibited;

or

the mobile communication device is the forward target mobile communication device and is further configured to comprise the at least one message management component, wherein the at least one message management component is further configured to indicate whether the copy of the message is to be forwarded to, or is not to be forwarded to, the forward target mobile communication device.